The Democracy of Love

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

Whenever I do my one magic trick to entertain young children, making a coin disappear, they always look astonished and squeal with delight. When Quinn, my six year old granddaughter who loves the Harry Potter books and movies, insisted on knowing how I made the coin disappear, I made the mistake of showing her. A magician should never reveal his secrets, especially to children.

She said indignantly, “That’s a trick! It’s not magic!”

And I, like a pompous fool, said, “Sweetheart, there is no such thing as magic. The only real magic is love.” She turned on her heel and walked away angrily. I don’t blame her. To a six year old, the world is a magical place, and should be. And children always look for magic in their lives and stories, which to them is a source of power in a world in which they feel powerless.

But I also meant what I said, though she is too young to understand. All true magic, by which I mean the source of all mystery and miracles, is Love.

Here is another trick in two steps:

1. Take a glass and fill it with water, then empty half. You now have a glass half full, or half empty. Now empty the remaining half. You now have an empty glass.

2. Now hug your child, or mother, or wife, and tell them you love them with all your heart, and pour all your love into them. Are you empty now, like the glass? Or are you a vessel overflowing with love from an infinite Source that never ends?

Jesus (pbuh) kissed the leper, the whore, and the thief, out of love and forgiveness and healing. Because of the great expansiveness of his heart, miracles were possible. In the same way, three loaves and five fishes can feed a multitude out of that love made manifest.

That is how God loves us, without condition, without beginning, without end, overflowing our lives, if only our eyes and heart are open to it. Guilt, shame, despair, are all responses to not living this absolute truth.

It is the source of the Chi, the Ka, the Force, which are all names of the energy of the universe flowing around us, between us, and in us. Its source is Love.

This all-encompassing Love, which is the real name of God, is also the source of all love between one human being and another; between man and woman, parent and child, man and man, woman and woman. It makes no difference who loves who. It is all love, touching all human beings, all life on earth and in the universe.